Not All Heroes Wear Capes
by Cornerofmadness
Summary: Gil thinks this is a great way to get the kid to open up about what was bothering him. Jessica isn't as sure.


**Title**\- Not All Heroes Wear Capes

**Timeline**– set when Malcolm is just a boy.

**Author's Note**–This was written for schweinsty at comment_fic for the prompt: Prodigal Son, Gil Arroyo + Malcolm Bright, Police work takes patience; so does getting a traumatized kid to open up to you. Hence, the stakeouts.

XXX

"I still think this is an awful idea," Jessica Whitly groaned, staring Gil down in the foyer of her home. "But he was so agitated when I said no, I had to call his therapist."

Gil grimaced. That had never been his intention. "I'm sorry. I should have asked you before I even mentioned anything to Malcolm."

She arched her eyebrows at him. "Yes, you should have but she thought, although unorthodox, it might help him. He's been keeping something in lately, and it's been making him sick. He won't tell me or the doctor but maybe he'll tell you. Just promise me he'll be safe."

"He'll never be out of the car alone. And the person we're watching isn't known to be violent."

Jessica pressed her lips into a thin line. She didn't have to be told that 'not known to be violent' meant little. Her husband hadn't been violent that she'd been aware of and he'd been out murdering two dozen people. Who knew, it could easily be even more. "Malcolm," she called rather than address that fact.

Malcolm must have been eavesdropping because he all but flew into the foyer wearing dark jogging pants and a Superman pajama top. He had a blanket in one hand and a small book bag holding god knew what, in the other. His blue eyes were bright, all but dancing. "I can go?"

Jessica squatted down. "You can go but you absolutely have to listen to everything Officer Arroyo says, even if it's not what you want to hear. Promise me?"

"I promise," he said truculently. He fussed when his mother kissed his cheek and ruffled his hair.

"Be good."

"I'm always good," he protested. Jessica and Gil exchanged looks. Malcolm could be a handful, but Gil was sure the boy didn't see it that way.

"It's going to be a fun night. Let's get your coat," Gil said.

Malcolm handed him the blanket and the book bag as his mother helped him into his thick jacket. Gil kept hold of the book bag but surrendered the soft fluffy blanket. Malcolm slipped his hand into Gil's tugging him toward the door. He was like an untrained dog on a leash hauling Gil toward the unmarked police car. Malcolm never even looked back at his mother, never saw her worried wave goodbye.

XXX

"Gil, how many constellations do you think we can see from here?" Malcolm asked what Gil estimated to be the boy's one thousandth question in the thirty minutes since the stake out had started. He'd twisted his small body onto the ledge behind the back seat, trying to look up through the rear windshield. In Gil's day, cars made that action easier. Kids all laid there while their parents drove, tempting fate.

Gil exchanged a look with his partner Jasmine Rios, and she rolled her eyes, hiding a smirk. She had two kids of her own and had warned him about this. "None. Light pollution." He handed her the binoculars, knowing from experience Malcolm wasn't going to settle any time soon. He'd hoped he could at least get the boy to open up about whatever it was that was really bothering him. His mother thought it was school but no one, not even his therapist, knew if that was the whole of it.

Malcolm sighed in that exaggerated way only kids could. "I _know_ that! I mean if the lights were all out."

"All of them I guess."

"You can't see all of them!" Malcolm rolled off the ledge, bounced on the car seat and then half wedged himself between the two front seats. "They vary between hemispheres and the seasons. Don't you know that?"

"Yeah Gil, don't you?" Jasmine shot him a sly smile.

He wondered what Jessica would do if he came home without her son. "Why don't you try just sitting still and help us keep watch?"

"Where _is_ she? We've been here _forever_," Malcolm moaned, tossing himself back onto the seat.

"Forever redefined as thirty-seven minutes," Gil whispered to Jasmine.

"These things take time," she said to Malcolm.

"I could have counted all the stars by now."

"Why don't you try that?" Gil suggested hopefully, realizing that this invitation had been pure insanity. When both Malcolm and Jessica had separately told him about the isolation the boy suffered at school – shockingly no one wanted to play with the weird son a serial killer – he thought spending time with Malcolm would help. The stake out had seemed like a good idea. Of course, he imagined the boy conking out on the back seat, not leaping around like a flying squirrel.

"Can't. Light pollution."

Gil swore he heard the eye roll that went with that supremely snide response. Malcolm did park himself on the seat for a moment and started playing his hand-held video game, keeping it mostly inside the book bag to prevent the light from calling attention to the car. Gil was going to have to ask for it so he could silence all the pings and other gratuitous noises it made. It only lasted a few minutes before Malcolm set it aside and started going from back window to back window peering out as if trying to manifest their prey, one LaToya Wilson who they thought might be able to lead them to her fugitive boyfriend.

Jasmine leaned in and whispered, "What? Did she give him a case of Pepsi before handing him off?"

"Beginning to think I need to send a coke-sniffing dog to Jessica's home because it looks like Malcolm's gotten into her stash," Gil quipped.

"Hey, what if I have to pee?" Malcolm's little face was suddenly next to Gil's as he clung to the back of the driver's seat again, making Gil jump.

"If this was a normal stake out, you'd do it in here." He held up his plastic soda bottle.

Malcolm screwed up his face. "Ewww."

"Seriously. Men." Jasmine sniffed.

"Jealous?" Gil arched an eyebrow at her. "But since my partner is a woman and you're just a kid, no one's bits are hanging out of their pants tonight. If you need to go, one of us will walk you to the store." He pointed to the quickie mart across the street.

"But wouldn't you maybe miss who you're looking for then?"

"Good question and the answer is yes so that's why we don't drink too much." Gil looked over his shoulder. "You don't have to go, do you?"

Malcolm shook his head. "Is it always so boring? I thought being a cop would be exciting."

"It's actually a lot of boring mixed in with sudden heart-stopping excitement," Gil replied. '_And nearly being poisoned by serial killers_,' he thought but didn't voice. Malcolm already shouldered so much guilt about that.

He bounced back onto the back seat. "I want the excitement."

"Be careful what you wish for," Jasmine said. "My little girl is about your age and the last time she wished for that, we ended up in the emergency room and she hasn't looked at her bicycle since."

Gil didn't blame her. Ariel had broken her ankle in a few places that night. "Malcolm, let's play a game. It's called who can quietly stare out that window the longest wins." He tapped the driver's side back window.

Malcolm stood up, putting a hand on Gil's shoulder. "Gil, I know the quiet game. I suck at it! Ainsley always beats me."

"There's a surprise," Gil muttered as Jasmine swallowed a laugh. "Okay, how about I tell you the most important thing about being a cop then?"

Malcolm's smile lit up his whole face. "Yeah!"

"Sit back and pull up your blanket. It's getting chilly in here. Once you're settled, I'll tell you."

Malcolm obeyed, tucking the blanket around him. Gil reached into his jacket and took out a black drawstring bag. "I was going to wait until the end to give you these but that's dumb. You could use these now. But first, that important thing to be a good police man."

"It's not being quiet, is it?" Malcolm whined, and Jasmine lost it, clamping her hand over her mouth to stifle the laugh.

"It's patience, Malcolm." Gil sighed. Apparently, it wasn't just for police work. It was definitely needed to child-rearing. "Police work is patience."

"Oh…that's what Mother says I need at school too, to make the other kids like me." He eyed Gil. "Did she tell you to tell me that?"

He shook his head. "It's the truth. That's what matters in police work, patience. I'm not thrilled to be sitting in a car all cramped up while we wait but that's the job."

"Huh. Maybe I'll be a paleontologist after all." Malcolm slid down on the seat.

"Hate to tell you, kid, you need a lot of patience to dust dirt off dinosaur bones too," Jasmine said, and he grunted.

"Here, this might help." Gil twisted around and handed the boy the bag. "For you, your very own stake-out binoculars."

He lost his blanket sitting bolt upright. "Really?"

"Really." Gil grinned.

Malcolm grabbed the binoculars and yanked them out of the bag. "Cool! Thank you." He put them to his eyes and stared out the window. He'd obviously used them before, and Gil remembered the boy talking about camping trips he took with his father. God only knew what Whitly had honestly dragged his son out there for and what he'd taught the boy.

Jasmine handed Gil back their binoculars and he also watched out the window. Malcolm fell silent for a full ten minutes and Gil kicked himself for not giving him the binoculars earlier.

"Gil?"

"Yes, Malcolm?"

"What am I supposed to do when some of the big kids tell me they're gonna hurt me like Dad did to those girls?"

The question was so soft, so full of fear Gil felt the full blow of it to the heart. He nearly dropped the binoculars. He set them aside as he and Jasmine both looked into the back seat. Malcolm was still staring through his binoculars, but his hands shook.

"You tell a teacher immediately," Jasmine said. "You run from those kids and you tell a teacher."

"My teacher said she didn't blame those boys for saying that." Malcolm's chest hitched and Gil couldn't swear to it in the dark, but he thought he saw tears sliding down Malcolm's cheeks.

"Then you tell another teacher. You tell _me_," Gil growled. "You tell your mother. No one is going to hurt you, not when I'm around."

"You're not always around," Malcolm replied softly. "I didn't do anything wrong. Why don't the other kids like me?"

"People can be mean when they're afraid and your father made a lot of people afraid," Jasmine replied, stretching back to pat his arm.

Malcolm dropped the binoculars to his lap. "That's why I'm glad you said I could come tonight. I'm safe with you, Gil."

"Always, kiddo, always." Gil couldn't hide his roughened voice but he put the binoculars back up to his eyes so no one would notice the building tears.

X X X

Jessica answered the door herself, instead of having her maid do it. She grinned seeing Gil on her doorstep with Malcolm still sleeping soundly wrapped his blanket against Gil's chest. Gil had the book bag in his other hand and knew he had to look a fright at this point. "That's exactly the expression I'd expect on your face after a night with my son."

"The boy can talk a blue streak."

"You don't have to tell me." She stepped back so he could carry Malcolm in.

Gil hauled the boy to the couch and settled him there. He stirred softly. "The kids are threatening to hurt him, Jessica. That's what he's been so worked up about." Hearing her breath catch violently, he turned to face her. "And he said the teacher was on the kids' side, not his."

Her face lost color. "Thank you. I'm glad he was finally able to tell someone."

"I guess it's something you'll need to talk to his principal about." He wondered why she hadn't just rolled up the family and moved to the west coast or something. Go where not everyone knew who they were, change their names and start fresh but it wasn't his place to ask.

Jessica nodded. "Or just get him a private tutor but I think there's value to being with other kids. Thank you. I hope he wasn't too much trouble."

Gil smiled. "He's never too much trouble, just a modicum of it."

Jessica laughed and walked him to the door. "You know he'll want to do this again."

"I know. If we have a stake out where there isn't much danger, I'll let you know."

"Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea after all," she admitted.

"He had fun when he wasn't bored. Next time I might suggest a book and a little flash light under his blanket."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Gil left her and Malcolm, exhausted but still facing a full day of work ahead of him. He just hoped he could keep that kid safe. He sure as hell was going to try.


End file.
